Here are a few selected images of past exhibits, packing up and the
move to storage. Some load very slowly and many are quick-scans without
a lot of depth or focus. However, they serve the purpose of refreshing
our memory of "What Was" in a former time and place. Currently, ninety-nine
percent of all our holdings are in storage--musty, moldy, mildewy storage
where thousands of photographs, slides, books (many old & rare), genealogy
records, clothing, artworks, canoes, musical instruments and lots of just
plain "stuff," albeit, interesting "stuff" is quietly racing toward total
ruin and destruction. All our organic based materials are at risk of loss
in the near future. Did we also mention several hundred hours of
audio, video, film and old recordings: vinyl, wire, hard plastic and other
materials in LP, 45rpm, 78 rpm and Edison wax cylinder formats? Metal artifacts
are rusting with vigor while genealogical records are fast fading away.
We sadly mention that many museum items were "appropriated by others" during
the stressful move to storage. Some items had to be left behind because
we could not move them. Others were abandoned in order to avoid expensive
legal fees to prove ownership of items whose donors suddenly decided the
gifts had reverted to "loans."--it just wasn't worth it for items still
replaceable with time, money and the energy to collect them.